


Don't be so Crabby!

by Ayautjasgrandmother



Category: Alien vs Predator, AvP - Fandom, Predator
Genre: Fluff, Humor, Other, little girl and big alien dude become freinds, some gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2018-10-10 14:59:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 20,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10440405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ayautjasgrandmother/pseuds/Ayautjasgrandmother
Summary: A well known and fears yautja arbitrator goes to earth, and needs a place to stay while he repairs his ship, and accidentally gets wrapped around the finger of a four year old girl.Shout out to alexawoods on Tumblr for giving me some motivation to start writing!This is my first ever fic? So sorry if it's a piece





	1. Stranded

Stranded 

'Pauking badbloods.'

They had destroyed his ship, sure he could repair it, but it would be slow and tedious. He had to give them credit though, it had been a smart thing to do - if not cowardly. He could not blame them either, his name alone made most blooded warriors rethink their lives and recent actions and pray they had done nothing to earn his attention.

He was Nracha-dte Thar'n-dha, THE Nracha-dte Thar'n-dha, the arbitrator. Feared by badbloods, respected by peers, and as he liked to think, wanted by females.

Unfortunately, his ship would have to wait, he had to hunt those who damaged his ship before they reached their own, and just his luck a storm was working itself up. A snow storm. He pauking hated snow.

On top of it all his body net was partially damaged from the crash, he had no extra source of heat. In snow. Great.

He set out fully armed and cloaked, wanting to make it a short hunt. There had been five of them, younger males with few weapons. He had followed them for weeks without detection, their ship was old and outdated 

He scoffed - this wouldn't be a challenge.

Inhaling he caught the sent easily enough, but with it came newfound determination to kill them all quickly. The reason why they came to this planet made clear. They were in rut.

Had they gone to females of their own kind they would have been torn apart on sight, an ooman female would have no chance. His body flared and shook. They would die. He wasted no time, they had a two hour head start and the ooman settlement wasn't far from the edge of the forest.

The wind picked up, snow started falling, it was a mixed blessing. The bad bloods weren't even trying to cover the tracks they made. This fueled his anger, they believed they had bested him. The only let down was the cold and wet, all hunters of his kind had two weaknesses. Cold and wet. 

'Great.'

The tracks lead to and abandoned structure, most likely a storage place of some kind. A quick scan using his mask reveled all five inside, a few feet closer and he was able to smell the h'dui'se that flowed off of them.

There were two kinds of bad blood in Nracha's opinion:  
On one hand there where those born to bad bloods, and grew up as pups knowing nothing more, but still had SOME common sense and had basic rules and guidelines.  
On the other there where those who gave up on the path, and searched for nothing but selfish pleasures.

Nracha couldn't STAND the second kind. It also appeared to be the kind he was about to have the 'honor' of hunting. He remained cloaked as he stalked up to a ladder, climbing as gracefully as a cat, he made no sound.

He silently climbed through a partially open skylight, and crouched on a support beam. Besides what light was given off by his entry way, was an open door. All five of them were in the center of the empty structure, two of the three where brawling. Although Nracha wouldn't call it that, they moved stiffly more like pups than warriors - they had no discipline.

"KNOCK IT OFF BEFORE I RIP YOUR NOK OFF!"

The two 'brawling' came to an abrupt stop.

"Guan started it!" Said the smaller of the two, he was missing more than half of his tendrils, and had a crack in his skull. The one he had been brawling with, Guan, was a grayish color with light pink and yellow markings down his spine.

"I did not! H'ulij-bpe said he would get the first female and tha-" 

"Because I will!" 

"He also said that you, our great pack lead-"

"I DID NOT!"

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN LET ME FINISH!"

"Guan, H'ulij-bpe NEITHER OF YOU WILL BREED IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP!" Said the largest of the group, he was somewhat impressive, and would most likely be Nracha's biggest "challenge". He was about the same height but had clearly put all of his effort in strength, not speed or agility, if his ridiculous build was anything to go by. He had almost no neck, his thighs pressed together, his arms bulged, his very skin looked strained trying to keep him together. With his coloration - a dull dusty piss yellow, with dark brown splotches, he was rather ugly. He also had very few scars: a further disappointment.

Guan flinched and H'ulijbe cackled like a mad man. 

"Guan you know there's a reason he's named crazy," said the forth part in the pack "he's all body and no brain!"

Both ignored the cackling that picked up.

"And there's a reason your named 'pathetic' isn't there S'yuit-de?!" Replied Guan "Because only males like you, will never get to breed!"

Nracha was tired of listening to them bicker he turned his attention to the last of the party, a male with one eye. It looked as if his head had almost come off at one point, all his mandibles where nubs at longest, his neck looked like a chunk was missing, and there was an odd air about him, like he was an animal, not a yautja. 

"Ui'stbi come!" Barked the leader. The one dull eye brightened, and "abomination" made a happy chuffing noise as he approached his apparent master.

"Ui'stbi, I am tired of waiting for this storm to end! Go find me a female and bring it here!" It was clear, Ui'stbi thought of himself as an animal and with no self regard turned and bounded toward the exit, and the thickening snow. Nracha felt no reason for him to live in shame like this any longer, he pulled out his chakt-ra and the moment the one eyed one exited the building, threw it. Ui'stbi felt no pain as his head was severed. The other four where so focused on their ruts, they didn't even hear the blade whizzing.

'Disgusting'

"But M-di h'chak why do WE have to wait?!" Cried Guan

"Because Guan, you have no willing pet to go find you a lou-dte kale, this is also your first rut so let a true male show you how to tame a female!"

Nracha could not stand this anymore, how did one fall so far as to see a female as a thing and not an honored child barer? He was about to make his entrance when he saw H'ulijbe smell the air before collapsing with the effort of his next round of bellowing laughter. 

"WHATS SO PAUKING FUNNY H'ULIJBE?!" Asked Guan. H'ulijbe rose went outside. Nracha tensed.

"What's gotten into him?" Said S'yuit-de 

"Someone is going to lose their head if you all don't shut up!" Said M-di h'chak 

A few seconds later H'ulijbe returned and bounced to M-di H'chak. 

"SOMEONE DID LOSE THEIR HEAD!" Once more he collapsed in laughter now holding Ui'stbi's head to his chest.

Everyone else stood, dumbfounded. Nracha took this as his que and dropped from the ceiling, landing silently in front of M-di h'chak. Who for a second looked surprised before gaining his composure. 

"Who might you be?" He asked, "You do know it is quite rude to not introduce yourself before falling of a ceiling?"

"AND DO YOU NOT RELIZE THAT A FEMALE IS A LIFE MAKER AND NOT SOMETHING YOU SHOULD USE FOR YOUR OWN PLEASURE?!" 

The three other yautja froze, fears realized, even H'ulijbe stopped his cackling. 

Nracha took a steadying breath.

"If you truly want to know the name of your ender, I am Arbitrator Nracha-dte Thar'n-dha. Protector of those who you seek to harm!"

With that he extended his ki'cti-pa. 

"NONE OF YOU WILL BE HONORED TROPHIES! YOU ARE THE SCUM OF OUR RACE WHO SHOULD NOT EVEN BE CALLED YAUTJA!"

 

H'ulijbe jumped at him from the floor with nothing but a carving knife, snarling with rage, with a single sweep of his spear Nracha gutted him. There where intestines and blood spilling out of the wound. H'ulijbe was dead before he hit the ground. Seeing this Guan turned and fled.

"GUAN HOW DARE YOU ABANDON YOUR PACK LEADER!" Screamed M-di h'chak. Nracha heard something move behind him and ducked as whatever it was hurdle towards him. He saw S'yuit-de fly over him with a look of pure shock on his face, he landed on top of M-di h'chack. Nracha threw his spear and finished S'yuit-de off. M- di struggled to stand up, his own muscle getting in the way, Nracha snorted and spread his arms in challenge. Mi-di managed to rise. The both began circling.

There was a tense moment, and they both lunged.

Their hands tangled, both pushing with great ferocity, both parties snarling and growing at each other. Mi-di reared his head and slammed it into Nracha's. It only had the effect of Mi-di losing his balance. Nracha leg sweeped the other and sent him to the ground, riding him the hole way. He grabbed the others tendrils and pulled them back exposing the biggest soft point on all yautja. He ejected his dah'kte.

"Please have mercy." Begged Mi-di

"I am." Was the only reply he was given.

Nracha slit the losers throat in a spray of blood. He didn't even feel the need to bellow his victory. 

He quickly disposed of the bodies skulls and all. It was true what he had said, he thought none of them should be trophies. With a sigh he knew he still had one to track down. The coward.

~~~

He hated this planet. The snow was now thick enough to go up to his knees if he traveled by ground, traveling from tree to tree instead and it was getting colder. He was frustrated and angry, he had tracked for nearly six hours, but the head start and the heavy snowfall had given Guan a considerable advantage. The only thing to be found at the end of the trail were marks that a ship had taken off.

'Pauking perfect' he thought, the first to ever escape him and it was a paucking young blood coward.

He REALLY pauking hated this planet.

He checked the position of his ship only to be met with more disappointment. He would freeze before he reached it. The ooman settlement was closer, and if he wanted to avoid meeting Cetanu anytime soon...

He REALLY REALLY pauking hated this planet.

Although many found hunting the pyode amedha exhilarating, he hated them. They all reminded him of nasty slug primates. Loud, obnoxious, cowardly and worst of all they seemed to love being DIRTY. Not just any kind of dirty either, STICKY dirty. Many of their foods and pastimes seemed to involve willingly covering themselves if slime and ick. He shuddered. It was like they WANTED to be sick.

He REALLY REALLY REALLY, pauking hated this planet.

Like it or not he headed towards the ooman settlement. The trip itself took nearly two more hours, it was beyond dark when he saw the outskirting buildings, he scanned the street - the least inhabited one was closest to him. 

'Thank Paya!' Was his only thought as he opened the window and quietly squeezed through it. Exhaustion and frostbite setting in he dropped to the floor. 

After all, his scan had only showed insects, a few smaller life signals, and one slightly larger one that he assumed to be a human pet.

Sleep set in.

Besides, he was an arbitrator. What would he have to worry about?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nracha gets a surprise.

A Startling Surprise 

He slowly woke up, the previous days 'activities' having rather drained him. His head was on something soft, his eyes closed once more... Wait. WHAT? He didn't remember grabbing anything to put under his head? He felt something slide off of his chest and froze. He looked down to see some kind of miniaturized earth animal in outrageous colors from where the sliding sensation came from. He then noticed some kind of fake fur that didn't even cover half of him draped over him from ankle to hip.

What.  
The.  
Pauck.  
He sat bolt upright. Looking around the room he was in for the first time. The first most noticeable thing was that he had been sleeping next to what appeared to be a miniature sleeping palette. It had fake furs and more oddly colored tiny earth animals on it. Next was that the tiny insect life signals seemed to be coming from glass boxes on a low shelf on his other side. Even from here he could see a strange shelled creature with claws scuttling about from his position on the floor. On the same side as the sleeping palette was a large window, the one he had came through. Lining the wall across from him were various items, a rather large but still oddly colored earth animal, surrounded with even more smaller ones. Other hard surfaced things that could be anything from instruments to small food areas. Finally there was a bookshelf, books both in and around it. 

Another thing dawned on him, it must have taken someone to put these strange gifts on and under him. They could have killed him for entering their dwelling without permission and be in the right.

He now owed a life debt.  
To a ooman.  
Pauck.

Paya seemed to be playing tricks on him. She was probably laughing right now.

By law of his people he could not leave a witness to know if his existence. He could do o e of two things :

(1) he could make whoever had found him an honored trophy.  
Or  
(2) live up to his life debt.

Above all he needed to repair his ship. If he made an honored trophy at least he had something to show for this trip. He made up his mind, he would earn a trophy. 

Just sitting here wasn't getting anything done, he picked up the weightless, lifeless creature that had been on him and rose. He should find out more about his prey. 

He went to the opposite wall, inspecting the odd things. One of the flat surfaced hard items didn't even come up to his knee. He knelt in front of it, it was the color of a fruit he could not remember the name of, but had small rectangular buttons on its edge. He reached out and pushed one out of curiosity, only to jump back. It had made a odd sharp sound.

He looked to the door to see if he had been detected. He saw no one so he moved to the bookshelf. At least he thought they were called books.

Silly he thought, to use such a primitive way to store information, then again, oomans where a primitive race. An odd one at that.

He picked one out of the shelf and opened it. On the page was a depiction of a ooman nervous system. Was he in a healers dwelling? That thought brought on a little discomfort, very few oomans became healers, fewer of those were both warriors and healers. Killing one could put the local population at risk. Snapping the book shut he set it back where he found it.

He turned, and examined the soft tiny creatures, all very much like the one he still carried. Almost all of them were different shapes, the ones that were the same shapes had different colors and sizes. They were all weightless and squishy. He could only guess their purpose.

Once more he changed his attention to the tiny odd sleeping palette. Oomans must curl up tiny in their sleep to need so little space for their bodies. Even then there would hardly be room for a single one. He poked it. Soft.

Deciding the bed was boring, he had saved the best wall for last. The one with glass boxes. He first looked at the one that had the shelled scuttling creature in it, squatting with his wrists on his thighs, hands between his legs. He peered closer, finding not only the one he had seen before, but two others in the box with it. Above them was a light-giving heat source. He trailed the wire it was connected to to around the tank and in the wall. Looking back at the creatures "home" more than half the box was filled with sand. Mabey they liked to dig? They also had extra body coverings in a small pile, with several branches to climb on, and two sources of water, and some plants to give them places to hide. He would almost call them pleasant, if it weren't for those nasty claws.

He saw something move out of the corner of his eye and almost fell when he turned his head.

There was an arachnid the size of his hand. It was leaning on the glass and leering at him. He shivered. It looked like a tailless hard meat spawn. Instead of a tail it had an ugly fat body, it had several eyes, four legs on each side, and ugly fluffy mandibles.

'Disgusting.'

After his initial shock, he looked at this creature's box. It was larger than the box the other creatures had, twice as much. It too also had mostly dirt, he could see a burrow confirming his suspicions about digging. The burrow itself was another horror, it was lined with fine strings of web, he could see the remains of another, smaller, creature. There where plants here and there. But this creature wasn't hiding. It was taunting him. It took all of his self control to not gag. 

"Oh, that's Mr. Legs!"

He froze. How had someone snuck up on him!?

"She's just hungry. It's feeding day!"

He slowly turned, tensing, preparing to grab the knife strapped to his calf. Still crouched.

He did not expect to see what he did. 

A tiny ooman female. He blinked slowly. A child. He had been found and stalked without detection by A CHILD? His brain stopped working.

He couldn't kill a child, to make things worse it was a female child. 

'Pauck pauck pauck pauck.'

It's eyes gleamed victoriously, its mouth opened. It was going to gloat. Send a signal for others to hear it's victory! Yet he did not understand what it said next.

"Do you know how to make pancakes?"


	3. A Mermaid?

A Mermaid?

 

"Do you know how to make pancakes?"

As most four year olds, Lilly thought 'As of this moment' thoughts most of the time, and 'As of this moment' she was hungry. It was breakfast time after all. She waited patiently as she could for an answer, but her tummy rumbled.

"It's okay if you don't, we can have cereal instead!" 

Once more the only response was the funny looking mask staring at her. Oh well. Cereal it was. She turned and headed for the kitchen.  
She got a chair from the table to put against the counter, climbing up it like a monkey, feet meeting the cold surface. Even on the counter she had to get on her tippy-toes to reach her Capin Crunsh. She loved Capin Crunsh, it was her favorite. She then retrieved two princess bowls from the neighboring cabinet, pausing to think.

'He's a big person. He might want a big person bowl!' 

She exchanged one of the bowls, Cinderella, for one of Mommy's big person bowls. She set the glass bowl down on the counter before hoping back to the chair, then floor. She scooted her chair to the fridge to get milk. She made her breakfast and contemplated weather or not to make 'his', she didn't know his name yet. She would wait! Maybe he wasn't awake all the way yet, she didn't want his cereal to get soggy.

She headed to the tv and turned it on. Saturday mornings were the best! She happily crunched on her Capin Crunsh, Swat Cats was on. Her favorite! She watched for a bit but soon enough came the evil commercials. Bleh.

Lilly suddenly remembered that He hadn't come to breakfast yet! She looked back toward the hallway to her room. Nope still not there. It HAD been late when she found him. Way after bedtime anyway. Thoughts still running through her head, she wondered how late it had been...

She had woken up from a bad dream, thirsty. That was the thing about bad dreams, they always made her thirsty. So as per bad dream ritual, she got up, went to the kitchen, grabbed her kitchen chair, climbed the counter to get her cup- she heard a thump. It sounded like it had come from her room. Her eyes widened, could it be the big scary orange cat from her dream?! Was it in her room waiting to pounce on her and scratch her up!? Bite her!?

She shivered. She didn't hate anything or anyone in the wold, except cats! 

She quietly listened for cat noises- she didn't hear anything. Maybe Mr. Poofie had fallen over? Yea that was it! He had done it before. Reassured, she got her cup and hoped down and filled it from the fridge. She liked fridge water, it was already cold and didn't need no ice! 

Her feet padded down the carpeted hallway. She froze in her tracks. There was a big man on her floor. HE must have been the thump.

She then got startled for another reason. 

Didn't he know there had just been a bad dream in here!? He could catch it! She couldn't let that happen! Not on her toys! Speaking of toys, he would need a special one to guard him from bad dreams. She went over to "Teddy tower" and grabbed several. She tossed some onto her bed, not really paying attention to who they were. She went back to teddy tower, searching by the soft light the crabitat night light gave. It took a few minutes, she had to find the perfect one for him! 

When she finally found who she was looking for she almost cheered. Mr. Lancelot was the best at bad dream protection! He was a Komodo dragon she had got at the zoo, he was green with rainbow pokadots! Pokadots scared bad dreams!

She put him on the edge of her bed. He needed a blanket and pillow first. She went back to teddy tower and dug up a pillow half as big as she was. She dragged it over to his head. How to lift it? It was so big. She didn't want to wake him up...

First she tried just shoving the pillow beneath the huge head.  
When that didn't work she huffed and tried to lift the head with one hand. She lost her breath.  
Panting she tried a new approach. Lifting with both hands. It worked! But it was taking a lot of effort and now she couldn't grab the pillow. She let go. His head dropped with a loud thud. 

'He's super tired!'

All the more reason he NEEDED a blankie, pillow, and Mr. Lancelot! She moved the pillow so it was folded into an "L" shape by His head. She then lifted his head with all her might, grunting with strain. It worked! The pillow unfolded when His head went high enough!

She sighed, tired out. The blankie was an extra, folded at the foot of her bed in case she ever got extra chilly. It didn't cover him up all the way, but he didn't LOOK cold, she hoped he wasn't. She placed Mr. Lancelot on his chest, first kissing the toys head, then turning to her glass tanks, kissing the crabbitat three times, and Mr. Legs' once goodnight for the second time that night. She was going to get in bed before stopping. She hadn't kissed him. 

She turned back to Him, knelt and gently kissed the funny masks forehead. The metal was cold but he seemed ok. She had then climbed up in bed and fell asleep. When she had woken up next morning he was still there, pillow and all.

She watched him sleepily for awhile, but with her four year old attention span... she had gotten up in search of breakfast. But as she was about to reach for the chair, a piano key had sounded, surprising her.

So he went back to her room, when she peeked in he was looking at one of her books. She couldn't tell which one. He snapped it shut, making her jump. The big man then got up and inspected her toys. She could hear a muffled huffing noise. Almost like a quiet vacuum, but in short bursts, his head tilted sideways and he started clicking. 

'Dolphins make noises like that! Maybe he's a mermaid! And that's why he has a mask! To breath water!'

She held her breath as he stood, he wasn't really bright pretty mermaid colors though. 

'Maybe other mermaids picked on him for it so he ran away!'

The mermaid man turned to her bed. Was he still tired? He didn't lay down on it instead he just poked it. He turned away almost instantly. Didn't he like her bed? Then she saw where he was headed next.

He crouched down at her hermit crab tank, head tilted sideways. He moved a little closer. She saw Mr. Legs stand up in the corner closet to him. She smiled. Mr. Legs wanted to eat too! He turned his head suddenly and jumped back.

'He's scared of Mr. Legs?! But he's so big!'

She saw him shiver as he looked at her tarantula. Although she couldn't blame him Mr. Legs WAS big herself. Her face fell. Would HE make fun of HER for liking bugs and spiders? She hoped not, he looked nice. She watched as his funny mask almost touched the terrarium glass. He shivered again. Maybe he wouldn't be so scared if he knew more about her!

"Oh, that's Mr. Legs!" She saw him stop breathing, she hoped she hadn't scared him!

"She's just hungry. It's feeding day!"

The big mermaid man turned slowly in her direction, his hand crept to his leg. He saw her and became a statue. An idea struck her.

"Do you know how to make pancakes?"

And the rest was breakfast. She did her best not to be disappointed about the pancakes though. She did love herself a nice bowl of Capin Crunsh!

She realized that Swat Cats was back on! Yes! The ONLY cats she liked were the Swat Cats!

She saw a reflection in the tv screen and turned to see the mermaid standing in the hallway staring at her.

'Creepy.'

"You want some Capin Crunsh now?" She set her own bowl on the floor next to her, she ran and made his. She walked carefully up to him and gave him the bowl. His head tilted and she heard another click. 

"I forgot your spoon!" She ran to go get him one. He still looked confused when she put the spoon in the bowl that was dwarfed by his hands. 

"You wanna watch some Swat Cats with me!? They're the best!"

She grabbed his forearm and dragged him to the tv room. Sitting back in her place, starting to eat again, she patted the floor next to her. He slowly came over and sat down. He didn't move for awhile.

"Oh, how do you eat with your mask on?"

He straightened his body, put the bowl gently down, and reached for his face. She wiggled excitedly what did a mermaid face look like!?

She hear a couple of "whoosh" noises as some of the tubes on his mask came off. He lowered his head and let his mask simply slip off. He looked back up at her, as she gasped. 

She pretty much crawled in to his lap and up His chest. Poking the huge face. He had a funny mouth, he didn't have lips! Instead he had mandibles thicker than her fingers, she grabbed them, ignoring a yelp of surprise. He had lots of sharp teeth behind them! She felt a pair of hands wrap completely around her waist and lift her up.

"I was just looking! I wasn't gunna hurt nothing!" 

She looked at his eyes from her high vantage point, they were deep set, orangie with gold rings in them. The pupils dark black, a scar ran over the right eye, it looked like it was clouded over a bit. She wondered if he could see through that one.

"Your eyes are pretty!"

He snapped out of his trance and grunted at her. 

"No touch.... ugh feelers- mandable?"

His voice was deep and rumbling. It was nice. 

"Ok."

"No touch ..... eyes, or ...."

He seemed to be struggling. He didn't talk English very well. He set her down and touched the things that looked like octopus arms on his head. 

"Ok."

She jumped back in him. Touching just about everything else. Armor, chest, skin.

He was a dark grey, with deep green dusting splotches across his back and curving around his shoulders, colors darkening in his lower body. He had red marks here and there over his chest, shoulders, back, and a bit of it up his mandibles. He also had a yellow gold stripe that widened a bit in the middle, going down his spine, the tendrils on his head also had gold flecks. 

"Your really pretty!"

He looked surprised at her say so.

"I really like red, it's my favorite."

At this His 'hair' stood up, his chest swelled, his colors brightened, the red turning crimson, gray to near black, green forest, gold more prominent. He lowered his head and touched his chest.

"Your hair stands up!" 

He blinked unsure of what to say.

"Well you better eat before your Capin Crunsh gets icky!"


	4. A Day of "Rest".

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What an odd little creature. At least she's friendly'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really plan on doing such big overlapping in chapters, but I wanted to show both sides of the introduction to each other. So I tried to make up for it by making this one extra long. 
> 
> Also, any ideas on what activities they should do together? I have a few lined up but feedback is nice!
> 
> Let the cute intensify!

A Day Of "Rest"

 

Nracha had already intended to at least take one day of rest before setting off to repair his ship. Aka give the deep snow a chance to melt. But now he had been seen. It also became clear that the little one was the only one here. He sat in the same place since she had run away. She was so small, and unarmed, there was no way for the creature to defend herself. The honorable warrior in him demanded he stay until one of her own kind came. He didn't know how long that would be until he asked.

With a heavy sight he stood, creeping down the hall. The tiny creature was sitting on the floor before a screen eating some kind of stew. To her left the wall was another glass tank, this one as long as the wall, he used his mask to scan this tank.

Fresh water.  
Four life signatures.  
Strictly aquatic.  
No threat.

He turned his attention back to the girl, examining her. She was tiny, not even coming up to his thigh, the fur on her head was a dark yellow, currently messy with sleep. Her skin was fair, but with brown specks along her face. She was almost completely covered with blue cloth, made to fit. She was cute in her own right. Most likely down right adorable to her own kind.

She turned and saw him. She stared for a moment. 

Creepy.

It then said something else he didn't understand. It sounded like a question. The small child then jumped up and bolted to a different room, coming back after a few moments. It slowly approached him, focused on the bowl of stew it carried. She gave him the bowl. Darting back with an exclamation, only to return with an eating utensil.

She tugged on him to go sit with her, he obliged.

After a moment or two of sitting still, while the girl was happily eating, it asked yet another question, this one he understood the base of: how eat mask.

That's what she had wanted food! And she was offering him some!

He put down the cold stew, and removed his mask, fully expecting to hear cries of fear, only to hear a sharp gasp. 

The pup lunged, landing in his lap! He was ok with the harmless creature touching and exploring him until it grabbed his mandibles. He picked the creature up as gently as he could, lifting her off the ground. It made an exclamation, once more he barely understood:  
"I no hurt!"

It wasn't trying to hurt him, he studied her face, dull white teeth, brown eyes, circular pupils. Adorable specials. Wait adorable!? 

"You pretty eye!"

He snapped out of his trance.

It was okay for him to be touched, but he did have a comfort zone that needed to be made clear. With this in mind....

"No touch.... ugh feelers- mandable?"

A noise of acknowledgement.

"No touch ..... eyes, or....."

What would the ooman word be! He should really brush up on this pauking language.

He set her down and brushed his hand against the bottom of his tendrils.

Again. The same noise of acknowledgement.

She then jumped on him and he submitted to the inspection. He could feel small hands poking his chest, patting his arms, running over his armor, and tracing his color patterns. 

She then said something that shocked him.

"Your really pretty!"

"I like color! Is best"

He flared with pride. Different species or not, a females word was higher than any males. Even though he couldn't understand completely, it was a compliment that any male should be honored by. 

He lowered his head submissively, giving her honored thanks. He forced himself to hold back a purr. 

"You fur -" this he didn't understand, he didn't have fur?

"You eat before bad!"

He then picked up His forgotten stew. Unfortunately his way of eating seemed to delight the girl. She giggled and gasped. Questions flowed from her. He ate the slightly mushy sweet bits first, the tastebuds in his throat singing! No wonder she was so happy with this food! It was so sweet! He then drank the sweet liquid, pouring the bowl down his gullet directly, using gravity to help swallow.

She giggled, jumped up and ran off. Coming back with a different covering on. It was a single blue piece, reaching to her knees. It fit her well, she also had a grooming tool in her hand.

She sat back in her place pulling the tool through the semi long yellow fur on her head. He watched for a minute while he thought.

'She is no threat but If the adults come back while I'm still here there could be unwelcome conflict. In that case the worst that could happen is I die. The best would be the little one watching it's Sire and Dam die. Only badbloods leave orphans, but also only badbloods kill young. Pauck.'

If he wanted to get anything done he would have to draw on his very limited ooman knowledge.

"Little one. Where ... ghhhhh other ooman be?" 

He hoped that would get his point across. 

"Oh. Do you mean my mommy and daddy?"

"Sei-I"

"They left for the week to go on a business trip. Rebecca was 'sposta come over to watch me and the house for the week, but sometimes she doesn't come, until a little while before they get home. Or if she's busy they ask Pappy!"

He wasn't sure who this "Rebecca" thing was, but not honoring an agreement to watch a pup sounded VERY badblood. Also was a "Pappy" dangerous? He didn't want to be seen anymore by the locals than he already had been, let alone a warrior. He was lucky the small one was extremely hospitable and even down right friendly. Speaking off he couldn't keep calling her little one.

"What gru called?"

"Lilly."

"Lee'Lee?"

"Yup"

Ok that was easier than expected. She- Lilly didn't seem to mind him butchering her name.

"What's you called?"

Nracha swelled with pride! A female asked his name!

"I am Arbitrator Nracha-dte Thar'n-dha! Hunter of badbloods! Defender of females! I am bound to no clan! Killer of kainde amedha queens!"

He realized a second to late that he had spoken in his own language, the Lilly would not understand him.

"Well geez Mr. Crabby all I did was ask your name!"

He sighed this was gunna be harder than he thought. By the end of their "conversation" she was done with her grooming. Yellow fur now untangled and hanging partway down her shoulders.

"Normally Pappy would come today to help me feed Mr. Legs. But he can't. He has a party."

He only caught a small bit of what she said, something about the bug in her room and the Pappy. He blinked. He hated not understanding. 

"It's to cold to go outside.... do you want to play dress up or makeup?"

He wasn't sure what either of those meant. So he made one of the BIGGEST mistakes he could have.

"Makeup?"

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~ 

He wanted to run. This was one of the worst things he had ever been forced to do. To top things off, he could not deny his host or request to stop. It would be an insult.

At first it hadn't been so bad. Just a few odd questions:

"You like - colors?"

"This thing pretty?"

"This or this?"

To which he had replied honestly. But he hadn't know that the colors or the pretty thing or this would be going on HIM!

Currently the was some colorful powder, three or four layers of it on his face. It didn't hurt but made his skin feel choked and dirty. There was shiny power going about three inches around his eyes, his right an obnoxious neon yellow the left a dull red. He was becoming more and more convinced the Lilly was colorblind. She had also applied drawn on eyebrows, they looked like thick ugly black worms over his eyes.

The only reason he knew this was because every time she did something she would show him in a mirror. If any of his fellow hunt brothers saw him like this, he would never live this down.

But above all the absolute worst this she was doing to him was the disgusting glitter filled, sticky, gooey, gross goop she had rubbed on the outside of his mandibles. He wanted to be sick. 

"Ummmm I don't like that color. Let's try a different one!"

This had been going on almost the hole day. She was relentless, only stopping for a "potty break" every now and then, and to eat again.

''Let's try a different color!'" Was said at least three times with each application. At least his ooman speak was getting better. 

He grunted an agreement.

"Well geez! You pick a lip gloss then!"

'Paya, please let this be over soon!'

He pointed to a random color, one in her language was called "green".

"You won't be able to see that one!"

He fought back another sigh. And picked up red. 

"That one will work!"

Another layer of gross goop was smeared messily across his face.

'Paya I beg of you. Please let my shower and soak still work on my ship!'

"Now that you have some makeup, you have to pick out a feather boa!" 

He slowly blinked. 

Thankfully salvation came in the sound of the outside lock turning. 

"Hey Lilly! You still here!"

"It's Rebecca." Lilly frowned.

"Did you have dinner yet? I brought you a happy meal!"

"I'm in my room with Mr.Crabby! I'm not hungry."

"Come eat anyway!" Was the reply.

Lilly grumbled something and left her room.

"Are you staying the rest of the week?" He heard Lilly ask. He could finally leave!

Nracha cloaked the second the girl left her room, he couldn't risk a newcomer seeing him.

"No. Greg and his band have gigs out of town. Just dropping off dinner. Sorry kid."

Pauck. 

Lilly appeared in the doorway. She had a box in her hands.

"Mr. Crabby? Mr. Crabby where did you go!? Please don't leave! I have bad dreams when I'm aloooone!" 

His heart snapped as the tiny girl cried. Rivers coming down her face.

She was upset. Upset because she believed him to have left.

"No! Please come back! I'm gunna miss you! Don't leave!" The tears picked up and got worse. Water ran from her nose.

All at once every paternal instinct snapped to life. He didn't realize what he was doing until it was done. 

He uncloaked and swept her up. Pressing her to him, flaring to scare away anything or anyone that dare scare her.

"No leave just hide. No leave just hide. No leave just hide." He chanted over and over. Goopy face forgotten. Her breaths slowed. He could feel the wet on his shoulder.

"Why were you hiding?" Came the muffled whimper from his neck. He flinched as her grip around his neck tightened.

"If big person sees... not good."

Little brown eyes peered into his soul.

"Could you get in trouble?"

"Sei-I"

"Oh." With that she looked completely exhausted. 

"Your clothes hurt."

He set her down. Realizing he was purring, he forced himself to stop. 

He managed to get her to eat, even if just a little.

She then disappeared to take a "bath", coming back clean and in her night cloth again. 

She kissed the glass boxes, noticing his curiosity she waved him over. He obeyed.

"That's Mr. Legs. She's a Goliath bird eater." She said pointing at the large spider.

"These are Mr. Bubbles, Mr. Shelly, and Mr. Climby. They're hermit crabs."

She climbed into her sleeping palette. She reached for a fallen toy.

"Can I have my stuffie?"

He gave it to her.

She leaned up and kissed his makeup colored brow. 

"Goodnight Mr. Crabby."

He didn't know what to do so he patted her head.

He was purring again. 

She was asleep before he got to his own spot.


	5. The School and the Pappy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is a "Pappy" safe?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pappy? School? No I'm not a mermaid

The School and the Pappy 

Nracha hadn't really slept. For one his kind only needed three hours of sleep on a normal basis. Less when on a hunt, and more while after a tiring one. Second he couldn't stop thinking.

What had that odd behavior, feelings, and instincts been? Normally the only sire-pup relationship was the sire breeding, the sire sending meat to the dams all female tribe, the sire attending the Naming Ceremony, then the send off to Chiva. Only life mates helped raise young, and those males left the home planet, and female ships less than females themselves. He never knew yautja had paternal instincts. The young were raised, and given most hunting and warrior training by females. After all, females were best suited to defend their young. 

His train of thought was cut off as he remembered the third reason for his lack of sleep. The thick layers of goop and color dust had dried to his face.

He was watching his latest 'hunt' against the bad bloods through his mask again, arms crossed comfortably behind his head, 'blankie' across his chest, and toy by his side when a sharp ringing caused him to jump and swipe the alarm clock off the night stand.

Lilly awoke to him over her now dead alarm clock.

"Good morning Mr. Crabby." The tiny thing said with a yawn. He watched as she stretched he little arms and rubbed her eyes. 

He took a breath and removed his mask.

"Why are you still wearing your makeup? You can use a rag and the sink to wash it off."

Relief flowed through his body! He could remove the acurrsid stiff! Thank paya!

"Can you leave my room please? I have to get dressed for school."

He didn't know what school was, nor did he truly care at the moment, he could wash himself without giving an insult!

He went to the screen room, deciding the most interesting thing was the tank of water along the far left wall. They where fat round little creatures, wiggling with excitement at the glass.

"Those are Mommys goldfish! Wibble, Wobble, Glup, and Glonk!"

Lilly pointed at each one as she said the names. She then dropped some sinking pellets in the water and they watched the goldfish eat.

Lilly was wearing thick jeans, and red sweater, she looked proud of herself as she said something about the red "matching" his. 

She made more of the sweet stew, having him retrieve the bowls, as they ate on the floor of the kitchen this time she was telling him about school:

"I have a teacher named Ms. Haily, she's real nice and pretty! She likes my drawings and teaches us math and-"

He listens to her ramble for awhile.

"Oh I forgot to ask yesterday, are you a mermaid?" 

"What is mermaid?"

After a very detailed lecture on creatures that looked like oomans with fish tails, that could sing beautifully, and talk to 'fishies', Nracha shook his head.

"H'ko, I am yautja- great hunter-warrior. Come from star not sea."

"Oh so your like Marvin Martian, or Goku? Where's your space ship?" Smart little girl.

"Is ... guah broken. In jungleforest?"

"So are ya gunna fix it while I'm at school today?"

"Did not think you big enough to leave nest. But sei-i." Lilly looked worried.

"I not leave until 'Mommy and Daddy' are returning. Maybe not then, not know how long ship take to repair." Her face instantly brightened. She got up from the table and started making new food, bread with some kind of paste between. Hadn't they just eaten?

"Is that all your gunna do today?"

"No I take .... bath? Wash face, fix armor." He grinned at the thought of a shower and soak.

"Sounds like fun!" She packed one of her food things into a brown bag, putting it in a bigger bag, before slinging it over her shoulder, the other she wrapped up and left on the counter.

"I have to go now, that sammich is for you! Bye bye, Mr. Crabby!" She waved as she walked to the door, walking into the snow, she closed the door behind her.

Worry built up in him. 

'Would she be warm enough? Was a 'Sammich' enough for her to eat? Would she get lost?'

He shook his head to clear it. She would be fine, she seemed to be an expert in the subject of "school", besides he had things to do today too!

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Nracha was thrumming with pleasure. Hot water poured down his face, carrying the makeup with it. He scrubbed at himself with a small course animal fur, using it like a rag or sponge to remove the makeup and dirt. He turned off the spray only to make a b-line for the gigantic hot tub in the center of the room. He sunk in and was thoroughly enjoying his soak,eyes closed and gunk free. He quietly started making a to do list in his head- 

(1) Fix body net.  
(2) establish connection with another arbitrator and fill them in on the situation.  
(3) eat a full meal.  
(4) gauge damage on ship, start minor repairs first.  
(5) get back to Lilly's dwelling 

On second thought... he had been extremely rude not bringing his host a gift.. tonight he would have to figure out what kinds of things Lilly preferred to give her one. 

His eyes snapped open. Establish contact first! Paya he was getting off track! He climbed out of his bath and grabbed a drying skin. 

First things first, he needed to oil his poor frost damaged skin and tendrils!

.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Freshly groomed and wearing nothing but a clean loincloth, he made his way to the bridge of his small cruiser. He decided to contact the only other arbitrator he trusted. Nrak'ytara. After some cursing he managed to get a shaking signal.

"Greetings Honorable Nrak'ytara. I must report to your great disappointment that I still yet live. To your pleasure I am stranded, I clarify that at this moment I do not need aid. As for the badbloods I pursued they are the reason for my ship being damaged. Four of five perished, all nothing more that rats, none worth their skull. Should anyone ask if my whereabouts I trust you will have the pleasure of telling them. Farewell. Nracha felt absolutely no need to be formal with Nrak'ytara. After all they knew each other since birth, although Nracha knew the other would find his situation.... humorous. 

He sent his message.

That done he went to his repair bay, his body net needed it. 

After a thorough inspection, he found that there was only a few wires tweaked, thank paya! It was an easy, yet time consuming repair. With a now self warming bodynet, traveling through the snow wouldn't be as awful anymore!

He decided to do weapons maintenance before checking his ship. 

His plasmacaster had a loose bolt.  
His ki'cti-pa and dah'kte both still had blood on them. His smart disk was still covered with bone bits and dried spinal fluid. 

Cleaning took several hours, yet was one of his favorite way to relax. He used his mask to check the time. 

Lilly was bound to be home soon!

He exchanged his heavy artillery and armor for his light short hunt set. Also thinking to pull in a tight long sleeve fur shirt before putting his now repaired body net over it. He stopped to eat a rather large slab of meat, enough to last him for a few days. 

He had eaten Lilly's Sammich before he had left. Her food was quite good, but not filling.

He made his way back to the ooman dwelling, happy to find he had arrived first. After all, it was rude to make a lady wait.

.~.~.~.~.~~.~.~.~.~~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

When Lilly walked through the door she was extremely excited. Nracha couldn't understand her with how fast she was talking. She was also waving a piece of paper around and kept saying something about him. All he could do was blink.

She was finally forced to take a breath and slowdown as she ba came winded.

" - then made picture of you!"

He started, why would she do that? Finally she stopped waving that paper around and presented it to him.

"Do ya like it!? Do you?! You can keep it it's for you!"

He studied the paper for a minute, trying to make out what it was, the first smudge seemed to be her wearing her red sweater, but with a bright pink color as pants. It had crazy yellow hair. The second larger smudge had his colors, and if that didn't give it away there where four green lines sticking out of its 'face' with six brown straight lines for tendrils. No one had ever made anything for him before! It was not the yautja way. Needless to say he was touched.

"Sei-I! Very pretty!"

Lilly absolutely glowed with his praise! 

"Are you gunna put it on your fridge?!" She asked

"What is fridge?" 

"That!" She exclaimed pointed at her cold food storage. Nracha thought for a moment. 

"No." Lilly deflated.

"Hang in trophy room! With the proudest of my things!"

Lilly gave a squeal and hugged his leg.

"You really like it?!"

"Sei-I! Always keep!"

With that the child took off running through the house.

"He likes it! He likes it! He likes it!" She was screaming.

'That must be her victory cry!' He had to fight every urge to join in with his own, it could give away his position. Instead he beat at his chest, purring as loud as physically possible.

After a bit of this Lily settled down, and got herself a snack, and offered him one. So of course he excepted not wanting to be rude. 

She went to a storage container built into the wall, and emerged with two small plastic wrapped packages. She gave one to him and led him to the screen room. They sat on the floor as usual, Lilly turned on something she called "geowild".

Nracha watched her closely as she tore open her package, and unrolled the foodstuff, it ended up being surprisingly long, just under a nok. From then she pulled a pice of paper of the bottom of it, before taking a bite.

He did his best to copy, having a little trouble getting the paper off the foodstuff. Lilly had to help him. The real trouble came when trying to eat it.

Apparently some ooman foodstuffs and yautja mandibles don't mix.

It was sweet and tasted like some sort of fruit or berry, but it was sticky. He tried to use his mandibles to hold it and feed it into his inner mouth, but it got wrapped around the lower right one and stuck. Then he found he couldn't chew what WAS in his mouth. His inner teeth where small and sharp, piercing and slicing, but he couldn't reach the molars in the back of his throat! It got even stickier the more he tried, slowly melting with his high body temperature.

Lilly seemed to notice his struggle, this only served to make him desperate. A female would see him, the great Nracha-dte Thar'n-dha, defeated by a food stuff! 

She got up and got a warm washing cloth, the sweet now melted to his face, she climbed into his lap and was wiping him down.

"Are you ok? I didn't know a fruit roll up could get so messy!"

He ducked his head in embarrassment. She continued wiping and picking stuff off of him until it was gone. 

"I hope that feels better! Yucky faces are gross!"

Wait. She wasn't upset at him for ruining her snak? Also, the makeup had been plenty "yucky" in his opinion. After the hole conundrum was over with, Lilly went and retrieved some pillows and fake skins.

"Do you take naps? I'm sleepy."

His couldn't believe it! Someone else who like short day sleeping! 

"Sei-I naps good!" The girl then proceeded to make a little nest before gesturing for him to lay down. He happily obeyed, she then fanned a blanket big enough to mostly cover him over his body, before crawling under it herself. Within minutes he heard Lilly's breathing slow from under the blanket, combined with the background noise from the screen, he quickly followed.  
\-----------------------------------

Nracha woke with a start. There had been a loud thump from outside. He uncurled himself from around the tiny girl, just in time to hear the front door open. He stepped away from the nest and cloaked, he silently drew his wrist blades. He saw the blanket he had just left move.

"Lilly girl~" he heard an old male voice say from the entrance to the house. Lilly's head popped out from the blanket.

"I'm in here Pappy!" She called back. He retracted the blades, if she was calling out she knew the person. He refused to drop his guard.

Nracha listened to odd sounding footsteps as they got louder. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lilly yawn and rub at her own. He was tense. Still not completely convinced this was safe.

A male elder appeared in the doorway, surprising Nracha with his appearance. The most noticeable thing was he only had one leg, a metal pole replaced it. He was wearing shorts despite the cold. He was also missing and eye, his face was scruffy, he had short silver hair sticking out of a cap, wearing a dark blue knitted sweater. He was carrying a see through plastic bag, whatever was in it was moving.

The Pappy knelt next to Lilly, and rubbed her head gently.

"Hey sleepy girl. Wanna go feed Mr. Legs?" That certainly got a positive reaction from the child, she squealed and wrapped herself around the elders neck. To which he laughed and stood. He swore that the elders limp disappeared in that moment, even with the girl unbalancing him.

He followed the pair, Lilly still hanging from Pappy's neck, down the hall two her room. The bag he was carrying it seemed, had smaller insects in it.

He watched as Pappy took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the top to the bigger of the glass boxes, the large spider poked out of its burrow. Pappy lifted the top off the box. He got a little closer as the old ooman grabbed a long set of tweeters and used them to snatch up a bug.

Lilly was absolutely wiggling with anticipation. Face pressed to the glass. Pappy then put the tweeters in the glass box, bug in front of the burrow. 

Mr. Legs certainly wasn't shy, without any hesitation she jumped on the bug. Lilly cheered. 

"Ok Lilly girl, you wanna try?" Nracha tensed up, he was going to let a child feed the animal?! Despite his worry Lilly grind and nodded, racing to the other side of the room to get a step stool. While she did that Pappy got another insect ready.

Lilly climbed up between Pappy and the glass box on her step stool. 

"Ok Lilly girl, remember how to do it?" The elder asked her.

"Like this?" She replied putting her hand underneath his larger one.

He relaxed as the elder kept his hand over the small girls protectively throughout the process. Combined with the tongs, her hand was protected. The guided process repeated twice more. After they had finished, Pappy put the top back in place and locked it.

They then exchanged the old food and water in the crab box, this he let Lilly do.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Nracha watched as Pappy and Lilly were bent over the kitchen table, Lilly was puzzled over some academic work she was supposed to do, they had been at this for nearly a half hour.

"My head hurts!" Cried the girl.

"Alright Lilly girl, let's try this a different way, you can count so I know you can add. Pappy stood from the table and went to the food storage. He came back with a box.

"Why do I need spaghetti noodles?" This seemed to confuse Lilly even more. As Pappy poured a couple of dry shell things on the table.

"Your gunna use these to help you keep count and add up. While I make the rest for dinner!" He said pulling out a pot and filling it with water.

"Count out how many noodles the first number is, then count out how many the second one is, then count them together and that's the answer!"

"You're super smart Pappy!" Pappy just laughed.

"Not as smart as you Lilly girl!"

Nracha moved closer as Lilly counted, might as well help his own ooman knowledge.

"One-two-three. One-two-three-four-five!" She counted aloud while making two separate piles of hard shells. She swept them all together to make one big pile to count out.

"One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight! Is three plus five eight, Pappy?"

"That's right baby girl!, just keep doing them like that and you've got it!"

Lilly continued on, while the elder made their meal. 

"One-two. One-two-three. One-two-three-four-five!"

Lilly would count out the numbers before scribbling down the number on her paper. Nracha leaned in close, and patted her head.

"Good!" He whispered to her.

She was absolutely beaming at all the praise. She only had ten questions total, finishing them quickly. 

"I'm done Pappy!"

Pappy looked over her paper.

"Good job! You got all of them right! Go wash up for dinner sweet heart!"

Lilly raced to the bathroom, as Pappy poured out the now hydrated and warmed food, into bowls, topping them with some orange dairy product that smelled good.

Lilly came running back and hopped into her chair just as the bowl was set in her place. Diving right into the hot food.

"Hey Lilly?" Asked Pappy.

"Hmmmm?" She mumbled through a mouthful of food.

"Where's Rebecca?"

"Oh, she said to tell you that if you asked that she went to go get something to eat." Pappy frowned deeply at her response, as did Nracha.

'She didn't say that when she came with the food box! How long ago did she tell her to do that?' He thought.

"How long has she been gone? I noticed my phone number isn't on the fridge anymore." Pappy asked calmly.

" 'Becka took it in case she needed it. She left 'bout dinner time, she brought me a happy meal!" Lilly replied simply. It was clear that she didn't think anything amiss, that alone was concerning, how often was she left by herself? For how long?

'She took the girls communications signal?!"

"Dinner time yesterday?"

"Mhm. She said Greg and his friends where gunna play music for people." It was clear, Lilly was used to being left by her surrogate caretaker.

"What have you eaten today?" Another thing that was clear was the elders concern, he wasn't happy.

"I had Capin Crunsh for breakfast, a peanut butter Sammich for lunch, and a fruity roll up for snack. And now cheesy spaghetti for dinner!"

The elder seemed quietly upset. Lilly being as sharp as she was picked up on it.

"I haven't been by myself though! Mr. Crabby has been with me all today and yesterday! You can't see him right now he's hiding! He'll get in trouble if you see him! He even sleeps in my room!"

The elder didn't seem to think anything of her declaration though, he was also deep in thought.

"I'm gunna stay the night over tonight too baby girl. I need to make sure..." Pappy looked upset, but snapped out of it. The meal was done.

"Ok baby! Go take a nice bath while I clean up and pop a movie in!"

Lilly was cheering as she took off, Nracha had to sidestep quickly so she wouldn't run into him. At the noise Pappy's head snapped up, eyes darting. 

Suspicions confirmed. The old one had once been a warrior.

Pappy's head shook. He finished cleaning up and went to the screen room. He looked at a stack of flat discs for a moment before picking one and popping it into a reader device. It didn't take long for a screen with a larger picture of the top of the disc to pop up, a square droid next to a white pill shaped one.

Lilly came into the room, wearing her night cloth and carrying one of her stuffed toys. Pappy gathered some of the blankets from the makeshift nest and wrapped them up on the couch.

Both he and Lilly had fallen asleep before the movie was halfway over.

Nracha knew one thing for certain. He respected this honored elder. Lily was safe with him. He watched them as they slept, sitting cross-legged on the floor. He now defiantly wanted to find out more about his own kind and paternal instinct. The instinct this great elder followed so naturally, without fear of being seen as weak.


	6. What's a badblood?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why would she like the cold snow?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm soooo sorry this took so long! End of being a highschooler and wot wot. Next chapter is probably going to be in Lilly's point of view. Opinions? It won't be this chapter through her eyes, just continuing the story, after all, little girls are very observant.

What's a Badblood?

 

Nracha yawned quietly behind his mask, it wasn't very satisfying due to being unable to stretch out his mandibles all the way, but a yawn nonetheless. He had watched Lilly and Pappy sleep on the couch most of the night, guarding, and was now watching them wake up. It had seemed a mistake for the old one to sleep sitting up, Nracha heard his bones clicking from were he sat on the floor. Of course Lilly being the tiny ball of energy she was, had started running around at top speed about .5 seconds after opening her eyes. 

Nracha watched, amusement in his eyes as Pappy grunted and groaned, muttering curses of hate as he finally managed to get up, and head for the bathroom.

Lilly was already dressed by the time he got out. She was also looking for the yautja. When she came to the screen room to look, Nracha purred quietly to give her his position. She poked at the air until she hit the solid arm, she sat next to it and started brushing her hair.

Pappy came back into the room, a grin now plastered to his face.

"Now let me guess what your going to want for breakfast..." Lilly let out a short gasp.

"PANCAKES!" Then both chorused.

Lilly darted into the kitchen, Pappy on her tail, with Nracha groaning as he got up to follow. He watched as Pappy got out various ingredients and cooking utensils. Mixing them to create a loose batter, and pouring it onto a hot metal plate.

"Can you make one for Mr.Crabby too?!" Lilly asked.

Nracha tensed. Last night both males had been distracted and had hardly noticed his mention, now though...

"Sure baby, is Mr. Crabby a big guy like me, or a fella of your size?"

The elder thought nothing of him? That was odd, he seemed protective of Lilly. He knew for certain he would be defensive if someone slept in his home.

"He's way BIGGER than you Pappy! I asked him if he knew how to make pancakes but he didn't." Lilly said with bright eyes. This got Pappy to chuckle.

"How big is he then Lilly, after all I thought I was big!"

"He has to duck to go through the doors! He also wears a lot of metal clothes and he's got knives and stuff!" That got Pappy's attention.

"Really?" He asked. "Is he a knight in shining armor?"

"It's not SUPER shiny, but it is shiny! He's gots big arms too!"

Nracha couldn't help it, child or not a females praises made his chest swell.

"Oh I bet he's strong! Does he help fight your bad dreams?" Nracha nearly snorted as he realized why the other male wasn't threatened by him. He thought Lilly dreamed him up, yet still had enough respect to encourage her creativity.

"I haven't had one since he showed up, but he's scared of Mr. Legs."

Well that blew a hole straight through his pride.

Pappy finished up the pancakes and served them. He rubbed some kind of white melting substance on them before drizzling a translucent brown surrup on top. Pappy left a big one plain and wrapped it up.

'Smells good.'

There was silence for the rest of the meal, well almost. There were sounds of happy eating and the like. Nracha watched with amazement as the tiny girl and elder seemed to be competing who could eat the most fastest. 

'How does she fit so much?' He thought as Lilly snagged her fourth pancake, the elder was on his fith.

He watched in awe as they finished off the stack of pancakes.

"Ok Lilly girl, ready for school?" Pappy asked Lilly.

"Yeah, but I want to stay here and play with you and Mr. Crabby!" Her lip stuck out and her eyes got big.

"I know Lilly girl, but you hafts go to school to get some lernin'! Now go and get yer pack pack, and I'll drive you." The elder had light in his eyes again, Nracha couldn't help but wonder what the light meant.

He watched as Pappy and Lilly got in the transportation ground vehicle through a window, he turned and retreated back to Lilly's room.

'Is this Rebecca dangerous? Do I need to keep it away? Could it attack Lilly?' Nracha's thought process continued on like this for awhile, it was only fifteen minutes until he heard Pappy's car pull up.

On muscle memory he cloaked.  
Lilly couldn't already be done with the School yet could she?

He heard the unusual shuffling of Pappy's walk, followed by the front door opening. Now intrigued he followed the sound to the kitchen. Pappy was dialing a code on the communications device on the counter, before putting a detachable pice to his ear. He waited a bit before dialing again and again. He finally got through.

"Ellen it's your father." He said with authority.

"Ellen, the babysitter wasn't here and hasn't shown up since I got here." The elder looked upset.

"No Ellen, I got here LAST NIGHT, before dinner and she wasn't here."

"Ellen this is serious. Lilly said she had left the night before last to leave her a happy meal."

"Ellen stop making excuses! She was left alone for at least a day! How can you de-"

"Your coming home early after all? I'm staying with her until you do. See you tomorrow."

He placed the device down.

'This Rebecca is either foolish or a badblood. Or both, even the elder has decreed it.'

He decided to go work on his ship to clear his head.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Nracha had just climbed through the window as Pappy got back from getting Lilly from The School. He had gotten around to examining his ship. He was lucky, all the living spaces were still space safe, his storage had only been slightly jostled, no food had been contaminated, but his engine and part of the outer hull were torn up. He had run calculations, he had enough material, parts, and resources to make repairs, but it was going to be absolutely time consuming. Even now he was still making plans in his head.

'The parts for the power exchange must be made first, so the overlay can-'

His train of thought cut off as he heard Lilly squeal, followed by her crashing through the door to her room, and directly into him. She bumped into him so hard she fell over onto her bum. She looked confused.

Nracha switched his cloak off and knelt to her level.

"Are Lee-Lee ok?"

She grinned.

"You say me name funny!"

He was confused, he called her by name?

"I like it though! I had a good day did you? We sang and colored! I told my teacher how Pappy helped me do my math, and she said he must be really smart to think of that! And then we went outside to play on the playground- my favorite it the swings! The slide is fun too and then after we went inside we-"

She went on twenty minutes solid, an entire report on what she did, all happily said at about two miles a minute. He had believed his ooman was getting better, but at this speed, all he could do was grunt to encourage he happy rambling. At least he could pick up her emotions.

While she was still talking she got up and took off her 'pack pack' and placed a paper store on her bed and opened it, pulling out two of them - one was a dull yellow the other a nauseous neon green, almost the exact color of his blood. Lilly took her first breath since she started talking.

"-my most favorite parts of today were drawing another picture of you and me, this time Pappys on it too! Then we get to go on a field trip next week to see the snow in the park!"

She handed him the papers, the green one was her drawing - this time his mandibles almost looked broken to resemble a ooman smile, he was on the far left. On the far right was what he assumed to be Pappy, stick for a leg and all, Lilly was in the middle. None of them were in proportion, but who was he to judge? It's not like he had ever "colored".

"Pretty. Good color." He remarked, handing her drawing back. He turned his attention to the yellow paper, it had lines and ooman writing he didn't understand on it, to him they were no more than squiggly marks with circles and lines breaking the pattern.

"Can no - speak paper? But... why want go to cold wet place - park?" Nracha asked.

Lilly couldn't have exaggerated her gasp more if she tried.

"You've never been to the park?! It's like school, but no class, it's just a better playground!" She said with enthusiasm.

"What is 'playground'?"

"A playground is a place to play outside! It's got swings and slides! And amnimals that stuck out of the ground you can sit on and rock back and forth! Also, teeter-totters and even a merry go round! Those spin super fast and make you dizzy!"

Yep. Still no clue.

"Why like cold-wet air ice?"

"The snow is going to melt soon! Then I'll have to wait a hole year before I can play in it again!" Lilly pouted. Nracha was pleased. No more snow? This would be excellent, getting to his ship wouldn't be so miserable! It could even speed up repairs. 

"Are you gunna leave when the snow melts?" Lilly asked with large eyes, bottom lip sticking out.

"Ugh... not sure, ship needs fixed first...."

"Oh. Are you going to stay for a long time then?"

"I can no stay. Must go.... uh .. hunt-fight badblood! Got away, must stop."

"What's a badblood?" Lilly's little fuzz brows were furrowed.

"Badblood do bad thing. Hurt, murder, do bad thing."

"Why?"

"Have no honor, no clan, think they do what want. No respect. No discipline." He hoped he wasn't going to far. He didn't want to scare her. This was a really watered down simplified version of what badbloods where. What they would have done, even to Lilly, had they been successful... 

"I didn't know you could make that noise."

He snapped out of his trance, he realized he was growling. He forced himself to stop. Suddenly Lilly came to life.

"Hey, Mr. Crabby! Do you wanna play Tea Party?!" Lilly asked.

"What is 'tea party'?"

"We pretend that we are princesses who are having tea!" Lilly beamed.

"....Do princess wear...makeup?" Nracha was using all of his self learned arbitrator control not to cringe.

"Normally we would but Pappy doesn't like how it can rub off on things, next time we can though!"

"How 'play' tea party?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.--.-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

This wasn't so bad, a bit boring and strange, but not awful as makeup. He had been a bit surprised when Lilly had disappeared for a few seconds and come pack with a long plastic sparkling dress on, it crinkled when she moved, and had placed a shiny fake metal circle on his head. What was it called again? Oh yea a "tiara". The game in itself was rather simple, she was continually babbling about things and he would grunt in reply and it kept her going. She seemed pleased with his part. Other than that he was expected to hold a tiny plastic plate with a tiny plastic cup, both outrageous colors of course. She had her own set, there was also a spouted bowl of some sort on the table, a tea pot, she called it. Beside it where two smaller bowls, for 'cream' and 'sugar'. Although the hardest part for him to grasp was that there was no drink. He would love some c'tlip right about now, now THAT would be a party. Although she was to young to drink... he could have served her some horn fruit juice. He remembered from his own childhood his damm served him that. It was always his favor- 

NO! What was happening to him?! He was an arbitrator! If any of his brothers in arms saw him like this it would be -  
It's a pup! It's a pup!

His instinct was going completely against the things he had been taught, screaming at him to be sure she was warm and safe... maybe he should go and find her something to drink... was this game a plea for wate-

His head hurt. He shook it in attempt to clear it.

"Are you ok, Mr. Crabby?" Lilly's voice brought him back to here and now.

"Sei-i!" He said a little more forcefully than he meant. Lilly looked a little confused but brushed it off.

"I'm gunna go ask Pappy if he wants to play!" She darted off down the hall. He seemed to be living under his cloak these past couple days. He unhooked his mask from his thigh to place it on his face.

'Wait. Days? Had it really only been a few days?'

His head started hurting again. 

He heard chatter from both the elder and Lilly coming down the hall.

"Well Lilly girl, what kind of tea are we having today?" Pappy asked, grabbing a long rope of purple feathers and wrapping it around his own neck.

"Raspberry rainbow with sparkles!" She exclaimed. Running to her pile of toys and getting another "tiara" and handing it to Pappy, who promptly slicked his hair back with his hand before putting on the sparkly silver head topper. He then pulled out Lilly's chair to seat her before sitting down himself, leg bent comically to his chest, which the peg leg spread under the table.

With all three of them sat around the short table Lilly and Pappy began to babble happily at each other, they where "drinking" tea from the ridiculous little play cups, tiny fingers raised. 

Nracha rested his head on his fist, sitting cross legged on the floor. He shifted his head a bit and heard a clank as his own tiara, forgotten, slid off his head and fell onto the table. 

All at once every thing froze.


	7. Say Hi To Mr. Crabby!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nracha has never asked them anything before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I realized that reading this story on a computer could be weird and make the chapters seem short or change how I format it so I'm sorry about that. I do all my writing ant internet stuff from my phone, I don't have a computer.
> 
>  
> 
> IMPORTANT!!!! 
> 
> In this chapter we see Lilly's mom for the first time. Later  
> On in the story they are going to be shown as somewhat neglecting and unsupotive of Lilly's emotional state! I just want to warn you incase anyone could be triggered! Also this story is going to get a bit darker at its highest point!

Say Hi To Mr. Crabby!

 

'Mr. Crabby needs to learn how to be a better princess. He can't be a princess if he keeps dropping his tiara! We're going to NEED to work on his princess skills!"

"Hey Lilly, how did that get there?" Pappy asked, face crinkled in confusion. Oh shoot! That's right, Pappy didn't know about Mr. Crabby! He wasn't supposed to either, Mr. Crabby could get in trouble!

"It fell." Pappy blinked at the innocent reply, Lilly could tell he was getting weirded out. His nose crinkled, his eye twitched, best of all his bushy eyebrows went almost all the way to his thinning hair - the perfect topper to the fluffy feather boa around his neck. Lilly couldn't help but giggle uncontrollably.

"Pappy your face looks funny!" 

Pappy snapped out of his staring contest with the sparkly plastic, but he still wouldn't let it go.

"I know baby, but where did it fall from?" He said emphasizing "from". Lilly paused. She didn't want to get Mr. Crabby in trouble but she didn't want to lie to Pappy either. What was she supposed to do?! 

Lilly felt the air next to her get warmer. 

But she didn't want to lie. Pappy always said it made him happy when she told the truth. He told her he would never be angry if she told the truth, that meant he wouldn't get angry at Mr. Crabby right? She took a deep breath.

"Mr. Crabby was wearing it, it musta fell off of his head, he would make a terrible princess, huh Pappy!" Lilly hoped he wouldn't get mad.

Pappy visibly relaxed, but half of her face almost felt like it was getting sunburnt from the rising heat.

"Isn't that your imaginary friend baby?" He said with a chuckle.

"He's not imaginary! He's just hiding!" Lilly couldn't believe this! Mr. Crabby wasn't imaginary! 

"Well don't be rude Pappy! Say 'Hi' to Mr. Crabby!"

"Oh well pardon me 'Mr. Crabby', I had no intention of being rude!" Pappy said while pretending to shake hands with the air enthusiastically. Pappy would never do anything tho crush Lilly's creativity, besides he knew she was lonely, even if she didn't.

Lilly instantly bought it.

"You normally wouldn't be able to shake his hand like that Pappy. He's supper tall when he stands up!" Lilly's eyes gleamed. Pappy wasn't mad! Mr. Crabby wouldn't get in trouble! But she had to be sure.

"But you havta promise you won't tell anybody about him! He's not supposed to let people know about him!" 

"Don't worry Lilly girl, I promise!" Pappy said, crossing his heart.

Lilly relaxed.

"I'm hungry." She suddenly blurted. He four year old tummy deciding to speak at that moment.

"Alright." Pappy said "I guess it's time for and early dinner."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Nracha's hearts had stopped pumping when the shiny plastic thing fell from his head. The elder had known something was up. He questioned the she-pup.

'Pauk'

Nracha didn't want to kill the elder! Especially not in front of the little one! 

'Paya, Cetanu, do not let this happen.'

The elder continued to question Lilly, he couldn't help his eons of training as he subconsciously tensed for battle, his claws silently grazing the hilt of his calf-blade. 

Then the ultimate betrayal happened.

She. Talked. About. Him.

He felt himself shattering.

No. He couldn't do this. He couldn't kill her. He could kill the elder if he was challenged, but he couldn't simply slaughter the defenseless pup. No. No. No. No! Yet if he didn't his entire race was at stake! The honor code demanded her death. This betrayal was considered unforgivable.

'Paya, my honor is hers. Accept her into your hunting grounds, allow her the finest spirit hunts. Cetanu, I will not disappoint you, I will rebuild my honor. One day when I must meet my final hunt, I will give you the hardest fight you have ever seen! I have never asked you of anything. Just let the pup rest among her ancestors in peace.'

He felt self hate set in. His fingers wrapped around the handle. He felt like a coward, having to ambush them like this, yet could not risk giving the chance to fight back or having them be heard . Lil- the pup would go first. A blade through the back of the skull- a painless end. The elder would have an equally fast death- decapitation. The girl would be put to rest, the elder would be a bitter reminder of Nracha's stupid mistake.

He was snapped out of his trance as the elder was wildly shaking his hand in the air in front of his face - he nearly sprung but-he hesitated. He didn't want to do this.

He was glad he did.

Lilly swore him to secrecy.

He dared let himself hope. 

It's not like the elder had actually SEEN him right?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Lilly had been going down the hall behind Pappy, about to ask if she could have a hot dog with ketchup for dinner when the door opened.

"MOMMY! DADDY! I missed you!" She yelled, running past Pappy launching herself around the next leg she saw.

"Indoor voice Lilly!" Mommy said.

"Sorry Mommy, I was excited." She replied in a much lower tone.

"Where is Daddy?"

"He's outside speaking on the phone, let go of my leg Lilly."

Lilly let go, she wanted to see Daddy but she wilted at the thought of him being on the phone. It was against the rules to interrupt Mommy or Daddy when they were on the phone.

"Hey Lilly girl why don't you go play in your room, me and your mom need to have a talk." Pappy said rubbing her back. Gently giving her a nudge towards her room. 

Lilly went. She needed to talk to Mr. Crabby anyway, and make sure he wasn't mad at her for telling Pappy about him.


	8. A Lesson In Humility

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nracha must do what all hunters hate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! A bit of a warning in this one, mention of Lilly getting physically "spanked". Just FYI! Also apologies for taking so long. Life is being kinda ...weird right now. Tomorrow is my first day of college!

A Lesson in Humility 

 

Nracha sat silent in the dark across from Lilly's bed, the girl was resting peacefully as could be. Completely oblivious that she had narrowly avoided death, one that he himself would have delivered. 

It was late and he could hear the Mommy and the Daddy's heavy snoring from here, it was a miracle the girl could sleep at all. Still that's not what he was thinking about. 

For the first time in his life Nracha-dte Thar'n-dha was feeling the deep shameful cut of guilt go straight through him. Never before had he thought hating himself was possible. He felt he deserved to be hunted by the others of his rank and be stripped of his own. He no longer sat shoulders back with a straight spine, legs crossed. He now sat like an eta, a broken slave, legs tucked beneath him, heels touching the back of his thighs, hands folded, body in a slightly bowed position.

He had thought to kill a creature he owed his life to. 

He had expected her to tarnish her own honor with a lie to protect his own.

He was painfully aware of his twin hearts beating slowly. He would have stopped her innocent heart.

Of course Lilly had no clue. She had come joyously back to her would be killer. Happily babbling about how her "Mommy" and "Daddy" were home, and how excited she was. 

Then she had asked if he was upset that she had told Pappy. She had not wanted to lie to him. That is when the gravity of what he had almost done hit him.

He was no more than a glorified Badblood who had the laws of his people to justify his almost murder.

Of course he hadn't been mad at her, and she had continued the "Tea Party" afterwards.

How could he.

Now all he felt was rage set at himself. He wanted to bellow in his own face. 

He couldn't remember the rest of today, it was all just a blur, until Pappy had come in to say his goodbyes to the small creature and put her to bed. 

But since then everything felt unbearably slow. He now had nothing but his guilt in the dark. 

To make matters worse, the unbelievable pain was throbbing in his head again.

He couldn't take this anymore, he needed to do something with himself. Lilly had her protectors back, he could just go and work on his ship.

Nracha slipped out of the bedroom window, all he needed was to busy his mind.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

He worked through the rest of the night and a great majority of the next day. He didn't want to admit it but he was afraid. 

Him afraid!

Of facing a little girl.

He didn't want to look her in the eye, or have her want to play with him. He didn't deserve it.

Every time his thoughts wandered his repairs sped up, for once he was glad there was a great amount of damage done to something that belonged to him. No matter how much he worked on the ship he kept finding more to repair.

Of course he would never admit it.

There was nothing to admit!

'Pauk' he finally admitted it to himself. He was avoiding a small ooman who was little more than a weanling. 

He already missed the gentle pokes and constant chatter.

There was only one thing he could do at this point... and it was every warriors worst nightmare.... he had to... apologize.

 

"Pauk."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

He wasn't walking slow, he really wasn't! He was just.. observing his surroundings! Carefully!

Nracha stopped for the eighth time since he started walking, scanning his surroundings while bouncing the tiny bracelet in his palm. 

It truly was a tiny thing, it barely fit if he wrapped it around two of his fingers. He had to be extremely delicate when making it. It had a few tiny skulls of some kind of shiny bug like things that once had fur when they still breathed, some colorful beads given to him by some barely sentient fish people who had believed him some kind of god when he was sent after some badbloods on their swamp planet (in fact they had fed him well, and erected a rough statue of him made of mud and twigs) and the main pice was a Yautjas hair ring, traditionally worn on a mane tendril, it was a small one that he had made himself .

The very basic meaning of the ring was :  
"Pauking touch whoever is wearing this and have Nracha-dte Thar'n-dha, every Yautja Arbitrator alive and whoever-the-pauk-else-who-owes-Nracha-a-favor hunt you down and end up gutted with your skull crushed with no one left to remember you."

He hoped his gift would be an adequate apology. It still didn't soften the blow to his pride. 

Nracha continued his slow trek to Lilly's dwelling, the bitter taste of the apology already in his throat. 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Pauk.

No matter how slow one moved, they always reached their destination.

The sun was already low in the sky, he had stretched a journey he could have easily made in a few vex to nearly six parvex.

It almost looked like the small human dwelling was taunting him.

Him, out of all the Glorious Hunters, was being mocked by a ooman dwelling.

He took a deep breath and flared his chest and mane. He refused to be bested by a building.

But he still had to face the girl.

Pauck.

He forced his limbs to move, opening the "window" quietly before slipping inside.

He was greeted by a rather sad looking Lilly. She was sitting on the tiny sleeping palette squishing one of the false animals to her chest, she sniffed quietly as she looked up at him.

"I thought you left again." 

Shame burned through the hunter stronger than before, he had left without warning or of notion of return. Could he be any more pauking stupid? 

His head was about to explode.

"Your making a funny sound again."

Nracha snapped out of his thoughts, he was . . . Crooning? Only females could croon?!

Lilly sniffed and stood on the small palette, moving to the end she was closest to him.

"Is your ship fixed yet?" The small question was so innocent, yet cut him deeply.

"No. Still need more fix."

Lilly only nodded. Her body heat was low. She was sad?

"Lee-lee, why-" Nope. Still sucked at Ooman.

"Why?" He copied her sad stance for a second before straightening up again, watching her curiously.

"Mommy and Daddy aren't happy with me."

Before he could ask why her Dam and Sire where upset, Lill let out a sob.

"I made Steward cry. I dunno what I did wrong! He just started crying!"

Lilly's face was buried in her false animal, her voice muffled by the soft materials, it didn't muffle the strong protective feeling growing in Nracha's chest. 

"So to make him feel better Mommy spanked me, it hurted. So I said sorry, even though I didn't know what I did wrong, cuz sometimes you hafts to say sorry even if you didn't do it!"

Nracha's chest hurt, he scooped the tiny sobbing girl up, sitting on the floor in one fluid motion. He wrapped himself around her, tucking her firmly under his chin, he didn't care when he started purring and crooning.

"I sorry, I sorry." He murmured at her. He WAS sorry. Sorry for scaring her. Sorry for how the thought of him leaving hurt her. Sorry for her being in pain. Sorry that he was selfish enough he could have killed her. He rambled on in his own tongue, unable to find the words in hers.

Nracha didn't realize when he started rocking, he felt the tiny body shake, she turned in his grasp and pushed her face under his neck. He hated how her tears felt on his skin, how so much more fragile she seemed to be as she wept against him. Lilly's little arms latched around his neck, Nracha started rubbing her back.

"I sorry, I many-much sorry."

He finally felt her become heavy with sleep against him with a loud sigh. All he could do was shift her closer.


	9. Not Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ship is fixed. Nracha needs to leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry, it has been FOREVER, but this should be the last chapter written off my phone. Also, would you guys be ok with me making a little Drabble store collection of Nracha? This would mostly be so I could write something for you guys when I don’t have time to crank out a chapter of this.  
> (Also also, how would y’all feel about some Lilly point o view?

Not forever

 

Nracha was paucked. 

Extremely paucked.

Paucked in every which way.

So thoroughly, amazingly, greatly paucked he didn't have a way out. 

He was currently hammering away at his ship, doing his best to keep his mind off of things. 

He had spent to much time on this planet, yet he didn't want to leave. He had never expected that he would enjoy anything else more than chasing down badbloods. How had an ooman child done this to him?! She wasn't even a tenth his size, yet she somehow bound him to her. 

As his mind wandered he heard a loud crunch, instantaneously followed by incredible pain in his hand. 

A series of curses in all four hundred, seventy two and a half languages came flying out of his mouth that would have made the most hardened badblood clan leader blush. 

After he calmed down a bit he turned his attention to the offending hand, only to see he had broken his middle and pointer fingers.

Pauck pauck pauck.

He was such an idiot. 

Nracha left the now smooth panel of metal to head for his medical bay. He dig through some storage bins to find the syringe and liquid vial he needed. 

He didn't bother with pain killers, young blood mistakes needed young blood healing. Young bloods only got pain blockers if the situation was life threatening.

Nracha placed his broken hand and supplies on the table, wrenching his fingers straight. He then filled the syringe and gave a small injection to each finger, right at its base. His fingers felt like they where on fire, each shard of bone was made obvious as they where slowly forced back together. His fingers slowly went numb, he couldn't help but let his mind wander as the pain slowly ebbed.

For starters. He had been here far to long. He could have been finished with his ship twelve cycles ago, yet here he was, doing cosmetic work on his ship.

Not to mention he was far to invested in Lilly. The time he had spent on this planet was what felt like the best he'd ever had. The girl was so unlike those he normally spent his time with. More than ten cycles later she was still absolutely GUSHING over the bracelet he had given her. In fact he had never seen anyone receive a gift the way she did. 

She had woken up the next morning after crying so hard still lying on his chest, only to burst fully awake to find a new piece of jewelry on her wrist. She had squealed for several minutes, he hadn't been able to understand her until she launched herself around his neck. He hadn't need to understand language in that moment. 

He hadn't been able to show emotion in such a way since he was a pup.

Pulled back into reality by his throbbing hand, he absentmindedly began flexing it to restore blood flow.

It had been such a good morning.

Now how did he break tell her it was time for him to go?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Nracha decided the best way to tell a child he had to leave was to do so in a nice way. He had set himself up at the small table in her room. He knew her sire and dams schedule well enough by now to not worry about them. 

He had made a farewell meal to bring to Lilly. It was a rather sizable meal that took up the entire surface of table and the portable table he had brought with him. The main course was a large choice cut of meat from a six eyed belron. There was a side of fat broth from a rare tipo, shredded sxilx meat, the tenderloins of an earth cow, a simmering pot of sweet fruit stew, an assortment of sugary flavored fruits, and to wash it all down hand made tea with warmed sweet milk of a olent, water, and a small amount of c'nlip for himself. 

He didn't have to wait long for Lilly to get back. Her schedule was extremely predictable. Enough to know that she was left unprotected for most of the time.

He also knew Lilly was always hungry when she got home.

Nracha was able to count down the very last minute to when he heard the door unlock, accompanied by rushed small footsteps. 

“I’ll be right there Mr. Crabby! I gots to use the potty first!”

Ah. Of course, the after school “potty break”. It didn’t take long before the tiny ooman popped into the room, her large eyes widened at seeing the large meal.

“A tea party! A really for real tea party! Thank you, thank you, thank you Mr. Crabby!”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

For such a small creature, Lilly could eat, she could also eat and talk unlike her alien companion. She told him of her day, and her adventure to the park, and how she had never had a “real” tea party before. The kind of chatter that Nracha had found annoying at first, but now... endearing.

Throughout the meal Lilly asked what the foods were, he was more than happy to comply with (a rather toned down) tale of what it was and how it had come to be on their table. 

Nracha hated it when Lilly had both had her fill and ran out of things to chatter about. He hated it even more when she asked him what he had done today, the meat went rotten in his stomach.

“Lee-lee, ship fixed.”

The silence that follows was heavy.

“Are you leaving?” Lilly asked, her lip trembling.   
“Are you ever go to come back?”

He had told himself to be strong, that a clean ‘snap’ would be best for both him and the ooman pup. Yet, he was pucked, through and through she had speared through him. 

“I come, to visit Lee-lee, swear.” His mandibles clicked against one another as he forced his mouth shut to stop more promises from slipping out.

Once and arbitrator made a promise, an arbitrator was sworn to keep it.

“Can- you come a lot?” Oh, Paya puck him. Her little face looked so hopeful and her lip had stopped it’s shaking. He couldn’t stop himself.

“Yes.”

“Pinky promise? It means you can’t break it! You can’t ever break a pinky promise!” Lilly looked like she was close to crying again, sticking her tiny end finger up. Cetanu, there wasn’t even a claw on the delicate little finger. Nracha leaned forward, and gently touched his newly mended point finger to hers.

“No Mr.Crabby, you gotta use your pinky!”

The large warrior switched his fingers gingerly,

“Do you promise to visit me whenever you can?” Lilly asked, looking him directly in the eye, searching for a lie.

“Promise.” 

The child launched herself at him, hugging him as hard as she possibly could, scared of hurting her, all he could bring himself to do was pet her hair.

Promise.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

“Are you going to be home when I wake up?” 

Lilly was laying tucked in bed, he had finally managed to convince her to cleanse herself as he cleaned up. 

“Yes.”

“I promise I’ll always wear the bracelet you gave me, and that I’ll leave my window unlocked just for you, ok?” The child seemed so anxious, he was growing more and more reluctant to leave... he feared if he did not do so soon, that he might not.

“O, Kay.”

“Are you sure you’ll be able to remember where I live?” It was Alma’s if the child could read his mind, and was determined to make him stay.

“I remember. Ship can say if I can’t.”

“You’re not going to forget about me, Are you Mr. Crabby?”

PAUCK PAUCK PAUCK.

“No. I not forget Lee-lee.”

“It’s not forever, right? But I’m still going to miss you.” Nracha started to pet Lilly’s hair, her eyes started to get droopy.

“Not forever. I come back.” Nracha felt his chest tighten. He hated this.

“I love you Mr. Crabby.” Lilly yawned.

“Can you stay till I fall asleep?” The innocent question almost did his resolve in. 

“I stay, till Lee-lee sleep.”

The girls breathing slowed down faster than he would have liked, he stayed longer than he needed to, but finally managed to pull himself away.

After all, the great hunter Nracha-dte Thar'n-dha had unfinished business to attend to.


	10. Soon?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soon? When is that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter... was an ordeal... it was also meant to be longer but, oh well. 
> 
> (Warning) it’s kinda just filler that I rewrote at 12:32 am after a bad day (a friend passed away) and was in need of decompressing.

Soon?

 

He absolutely hated this. It was a stupid mistake made by those who should know better that HE had to clean up. If there was one thing about being an arbitrator it was having to cover his kinds ass. Even if they were stupid enough present their asses to misfortune.

Nracha’s blade slashed through the hard meat drone without much effort.

A paucking hot blooded soon to be alpha of the clan had decided to have a hunting party with paucking hard meat, and everything had “shockingly” gotten out of control before even reaching their hunting grounds, forcing Nracha to clean up the hot headed snobs ship. 

Thus putting hold on his hunt for Guan once again. 

Though if Nracha was being honest to himself, that wasn’t what concerning him. His mind was truly stuck on the thought of earth, and the tiny creature that lived there.

‘Was she getting enough to eat?’ Slash, down went another drone.  
‘Was she getting enough to drink?’  
The next drone jumped on him  
‘Is she warm?’  
He threw it through the wall.  
‘Where her caretakers doing what they owed her?’  
He severed the drones head from its body.  
‘What if they weren’t.’  
Well then, he would need to finish here before he dropped by for a visit.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Robert James Williams had been through his fair share and a little more in his 55 ripe years of life, losing his family when he was a boy, joining a war to young, losing bits and pieces of himself along the way, coming back a different man only to find more hardships. 

It was incredible that he made it this far, and he always thought he would be a wise old man by now but, he just couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out what was wrong with his granddaughter.

His Lilly was the absolute light of his life. He had never been very close to his direct child, she had always been her mothers, even before they split and even now he regretted not fighting to get her back, but he didn’t want to regret things like that with Lilly. 

She was caught in a funk for the past couple of weeks. When he asked her about it she just said it was because her “friend” had to go home. He had asked her teacher, parents, and even the good for nothing babysitter his kid and son-in-law just couldn’t fire. From what anyone could tell, it was an imaginary friend.

How could a child even lose someone who wasn’t real to begin with?

Her appetite had drastically dropped, well, she would eat if he asked her to but no more cravings for sugary snacks and cereal, no seconds, or even dessert could entice her to get excited. She played quietly by herself in her room, he frequently caught her just staring out of her window.

He asked her about that too,

“I was hoping I would see Mr. Crabby come back!”

He just didn’t get it.

The only thing he knew was that if this continued much longer, he was going to take her to see a doctor, if only to be sure nothing was wrong on the physical inside.

Wise old man he sure was.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

‘Where is he?’

Lilly missed Mr. Crabby. It was quite in her room with him gone. 

Even if he didn’t talk as much as she did, he still made the funny dolphin noises, or the deep bird coo’s that filled the room.

She even started leaving a pillow, blankie, and a couple stiffies to pick from on the floor every night hoping she would get up to find him there.

Pappy didn’t understand either. She told him and Dr. Lizzy that she just missed Mr. Crabby.

Didn’t Pappy have friends he missed? 

Sometimes she daydreamed at her window. He said he would come back soon. 

She also liked to color him. 

Maybe he was in the Ocean! He made dolphin sounds.

She colored in Mr.Crabby’s mermaid tail.

Her teacher said that some dolphins lived in the Amazon river, wherever that was, and that those dolphins were pink! Did Mr.Crabby know any pink dolphins? Was the amazon far away? 

He did say he fixed his ship. 

Lilly wasn’t sure as to how or why a boat got here. Maybe that’s how Mr.Crabby broke it? By driving it on land when it needed water. 

She wasn’t sure. All Lilly knew was that Mr.Crabby had promised ‘Soon’, but when was that?


	11. Long awaited visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mr. Crabby goes back to earth!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Sorry it’s been longer then I meant to go.
> 
> I’ve been thinking about the ending of this story (which is a long ways away so don’t worry) but I have two endings I really like. One is happy and the other will make you feel feels. Would you guys just like one of the two or would you like me to post both and you get to decide which one you want to be “cannon” for this story on your own?

Long Awaited Visit 

 

Lilly missed Mr. Crabby. She missed him LOTS. She adored Pappy but it had be nice to have another friend around. Especially one that had sleepovers all the time. What was he doing that was taking him so long?

Sometimes during school she daydreamed about Mr. Crabby on his adventures. Her favorite had to be the one where he rescued the mermaid princess,who gave him her sparkly tiara because she was so happy to be rescued. She really liked that one cuz at the end, Mr. Crabby came back for another sleepover and gave the tiara to her.

Although, she definitely wouldn’t mind him coming back without a tiara, so long as he just came back.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-..-..-.-.-..-.-..

She dreamed about him at night sometimes too. But her dreams weren’t always has happy as her day dreams.

This time she had been woken up after the giant scary wizard cat had put Mr. Crabby into a fish bowl. Mommy said bowls were bad for fish and that they made fish sick, and sure enough Mr. Crabby had gotten very sick, very very fast. The scariest part was when the wizard cat had used a spell to turn me crabby into a goldfish and had held him over his mouth and almost ate him.

Lilly shivered. 

Cats were scary. And as always her bad dreams made her thirsty. 

She had been disappointed to wake up and find the pillow she left on the floor before bed unattended. 

Lilly hopped up on the counter to grab her cup. Not bothering to see which Disney character was on it before filling it. 

She didn’t know why but. . . She just felt scared for Mr. Crabby. Was he not coming back? Had he gotten hurt? Had he been eaten by a giant cat?!

Lilly’s cup over filled while she was lost in her thoughts, spilling over her fingers with a cold chill. 

She slowly wiped up the mess with her sleeve not really caring it made her arm wet.

Was Mr. Crabby lost? Was that why he hadn’t come back yet? 

Lilly slurped up most of her water before she even made it back to her room, before freezing at the sight of a giant silhouette lifting her covers off her bed.

Lilly couldn’t help but squeal and launch herself at the giant mermaids legs so hard she knocked her own breath away on the metal leg guard.

 

-.-.-.-.-..-.—.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

 

Piloting his small personal hunting ship into the woods had been paucking effortless compared to the last time he touched down on the little backwater planet. He didn’t even come close to losing parts of his ship.

Nracha knew he could have waited until day to go to his tiny human, but why take the risk of being seen?

At least that was his self reasoning.

The hunter stalked silently through the darkness, subconsciously pleased when a small antlered earth creature didn’t even notice him pass by only an arms length away. He wasn’t even using a cloak.

It didn’t take long for him to reach the human dwelling, it took even less time for him to find his window of choice open.

Nracha crept through the small opening without disturbing his surroundings. He scanned the area of the house that could possibly contain Mommy and Daddy. It was “surprisingly” void. 

And so was the tiny bed. 

Nracha shot off a life scan on the house. She was just in the eating area, most likely getting herself some fluids.

Excellent. 

Nracha had a new gift for the tiny creature. It was another small bit of jewelry, an unbelievably tiny ring. The ring itself looked like just breathing on it could break it, but was made of hard meat hide, cured in a way that made it strong enough that it could hold him up if stood in its side, should he chose to do so. It had a few small shiny gems set in it. most were clear, but had a slight pink shine to them, the one in the center was completely clear but reflected light like a mirror. None of the gems had any great value but they were pretty.

Lilly had once sung the praises of some kind of Mouth-sprite that took teeth, for the price of a gift under the bedding. He didn’t understand it but if it was her choice way to receive a gift.... 

He lifted the blanket, but were did he put it? It seemed strange to put it in the bedding, seeing as how it was more likely she would just kick it and never see it in the first place.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud screeching and impact to his leg.

Lilly had wrapped herself around his leg, babbling. He may have been improving his Ooman speak but when she went this fast it was hard to make out the individual words.

“Mrcrabbyyourback! I missedyou somuchistartedtothinkyouforgot! Didyoumissme? Wheredidyougo? Weretheredolphins? WeretheyPINK?  
Didyoualmostgeteatedbyagiantcat?!” Lilly finally sucked in a lung full of air, and pressed her face again ha his leg.

What was she doing now? Nracha felt moisture. Why was she crying?

Nracha gently pried her off his leg, only to see tears dripping down her face. He slowly crouched down to her level, he began to purr.

Lilly flung herself around his neck.

“Why were you gone for so long? I was scared you forgoted me or got eaten by a cat!”

Nracha gently stroked her back, letting the river of tears make his neck wet. He really hadn’t been gone that long had he?

“I, here now.” He wasn’t sure if Lilly heard him for a moment. Until she let go and messily wiped her nose.

“Are you going to stay for awhile?” She asked rubbing her eyes.

“I stay, yes.”

Lilly was instantly around his neck again, a fresh wave of tears flowing down his neck.

“It’s going to be so much fun! We can play hide and seek and you can give me piggy back rides and dress up an-“ 

Nracha cared for the creature but there was just a point were he had to start drowning her out. Her babble made little sense to him anyway. He stat on the ground, Lilly in his lap, happily chitchatting her heart away.

Nracha went into ‘recharge’ mode, until he felt tapping on his arm.

“Did you hear me Mr. Crabby?” Lilly’s large eyes looked at him suspiciously.

“No.”

“I asked what you did while you weren’t here!”

Nracha blanked. What did he tell her? He couldn’t disclose arbitrator business with most yautja, let alone a youngling of another species.

“Hunting.” The one word answer wasn’t a lie but wasn’t anything that could get either of them killed.

“You left to go hunting? Did you bring anything to eat?” Lilly bounced up and down. It hadn’t taken long after meeting her to figure out that the child was food driven.

Nracha’s mandibles curdled at the thought of what attempting to eat a hard meat would do to someone.

“No.”

“Did you eat it all by yourself?!”

“Did no eat hunt.” 

That had certainly been the very wrong thing to say.

“Mr. Crabby! You can’t just kill things for fun you have to eat them! Killing things just for fun is wrong and mean and -“

Well the tiny human was certainly on top of things. Nracha could only blink as Lilly’s words became to fast to understand. At least she honored and respected the greatest hunting law of all, apparently more so then some of his own kind. “Respect what you kill.” Was the first thing his mother had taught him about the hunt. 

“-Now do you get it!” Lilly finished her rant.

“Did not waste kill.” 

Lilly looked surprised. “What did you do with it if you couldn’t eat it?”

Nracha gave her the tiny ring. It was all it took to set her off. Again. Lilly was squealing and cooing and making all kinds of noises about and at the ring. The only thing understandable this time around was “pretty!” And “shiny!”.

“You like?” Nracha asked sarcastically as the creature flung herself against him yet again.

“I love it Mr.crabby! Thank you thank you thank you!”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-...—-.-.—.-.—.-.

The rest of the night had just been Lilly sitting on his leg, talking and bouncing excitedly, jumping up every once in awhile to get something to show him, sometimes a toy, or another item of jewelry, a blanket to wrap herself up in. The last thing she got was a drawing that seemed to concern her quite a bit. It hadn’t even been hanging or on the pile of drawings on her table. It had been hidden in a shoebox in her storage unit.

“I had lots of bad dreams when you were gone.” Lilly paused until she felt a coo move through the massive being she propped herself again.

“This one was the scariest Ive ever hads.”

Lilly gulped loudly. A gentle rub on her arm coaxing her to continue.

“There was a great big giant cat! And he put you into a tiny bowl and you got sick and then he tried to eat you but then I woke up before I saw what happened and I didn’t know if you got away and I was so scared that he got you!” Lilly was sniffling again with the treat of tears. 

“I couldn’t get it out of my head so I drew it but then I was still scared so I put it in a box but then I kept seeing the box so I put it in the toy box so I wouldn’t have to look at it anymore.” The tears began to flow.

Nracha didn’t quite get how Lilly could feel so much, but he did care for her. He rubbed her back until the gross sobbing stopped.

“I okay, no cat.”

That seemed to be all she needed to sooth her. After the sobbing cake hiccups and after the hiccups she passed out against him. 

Nracha could feel the little breaths she took while she slept.

He had missed this.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.—.-.-.-.-.-.

He had meant to have been to his daughters house before Lilly woke up. Robert had attempted to get his daughter to fire the good for nothing babysitter but she wouldn’t hear it. 

Instead he was now running late because an old army buddy had called him up last night and they had been on the phone for hours, reminiscing over old times, he had woken up late and stopped by the store on the way over. 

Damnit he dropped his keys.

He groaned as he bent over to retrieve them. He sure wasn’t what he used to be.

When he finally got the door open, the warm air was a relief from the winter chill. Mother Nature sure could be a bitter woman when she wanted, winter was supposed to be ending and she was giving it all she had to make his bones creak.

There was no sign of Lilly, hopefully that meant she had stayed down all night. Ever since the ‘disappearance’ of her imaginary friend she had been having nightmares. 

He got himself set up in the kitchen. Pulling new boxes of cereal, lunchables, and other Lilly-friendly foods out of bags to put them away. Then he pulled out a pan and slapped in some butter to let it get heated while he got pancakes and eggs going.

Normally there was joy and singing when he cooked for his granddaughter, instead a frown pulled at his face. Lilly hadn’t had much of an appetite lately, her doctor said that as long as she wasn’t loosing weight she’d be alright, but this wasn’t her. 

Rob poured some cheese and eggs into the hot pan, not really registering the speck of hot butter that spit against his finger. 

Lilly’s teacher had also pointed out she wasn’t energetic at school either. 

Pancakes were poured.

If only there was a way to convince Lilly that her friend hadn’t left. Maybe it was time to look for a psychiatrist. Did they even have them for children?

Plating the pancakes next to the eggs, would Lilly even be okay with talking to a stranger?

“Hi Pappy.”

Robert turned to the sleepy girl rubbing her eyes.

“Hi Lillygirl! Why don’t you go get washed up for breakfast?”

Lilly disappeared back down the hallway.

“Pappy” set the table, he wasn’t expecting much but he hoped she would at least get an egg down.

Lilly came bursting back into the room, followed by a gust of warm air, face still damp from being washed.

“GoodmorninPappy!Did yousleep good? I slept real nice and good! Mr. Crabby cameback and we talkedfor areallylong time and I fell asleepanddidn’t have anybad dreams at all!and-“ Lilly’s words were only broken apart by her shoving food into her mouth.

And just like that his own spirit returned and his bones stopped creaking. 

His Lilly was back!

“Slow down Lilly! I don’t want you to choke!” The only response was a muffled confirmation.

There were a few happy minutes with nothing but enthusiastic eating noises filling the room.

“Look what Mr.Crabby gave me!” Lilly exclaimed, showing him her hand. Her pointer finger had a delicate little ring on it. It was a beautiful shiny black with some stones set in it.

He had no clue were she got it from, but he’d never heard of black metal, he just assumed it was plastic.

“Oh how pretty! Is that why he went away for awhile? To get you a ring?”

“Well no, he went hunting, but he made me a ring out of it!” Lilly’s face was lit up like a Christmas tree, he just couldn’t bare to burst her bubble.

“How thoughtful! He must be a really good friend!”

“Can we go play outside after breakfast Pappy!?” 

He’d take her to the moon if she’d asked.

“Of course love! Go get dressed and put on your coat while I clean up.”

With that Lilly scampered off. Robert couldn’t wipe the smile off his face while he cleaned up the breakfast mess, even if it did feel like something was watching him the whole time.


	12. Long Awaited Visit (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Really only focuses on one event but a very important one

Long Awaited Visit (pt 2)

Nracha hadn’t realized how stressed he had been. Seeing the human child was exactly what the hunter needed to help clear his head. During the time she had slept on him had given him time to think strategy on how to catch his stray badblood. 

By now his prey could be galaxies away, but that would be highly unlikely. An honorable hunter would have their clan and lineage behind them to support them, getting them to places they needed to go to better them self’s, but badbloods rarely has structured societies, slitting the throats of their own young to boost their own rank, driving prisoners mad to be no greater than dogs, and mating their own lineage to the point of madness and deformity for the sake of pleasure. Although disgusting, it played to his advantage. 

His scanners told him that this solar system was clear, for now. It was common for badbloods to prey on weaker species, an armed adult human could take down a Yautja, and on occasion had done so, becoming honorary Yautja themselves, but an unarmed soft child had no chance. If the pauck came for Lilly, it would be over before it began.

Nracha heard Pappy come in, an interruption but not completely unwelcome. It wasn’t a real threat with his mask on and ready to cloak should the old male hobble down the hallway. 

It wasn’t long after the smell of food came wafting into the room that Lilly woke up. He watched with a bit of amusement as the little creature left the room, bumping into the door frame, and yawning. It wasn’t long after that that she came running back in and leaving again, chirping about “PAPPYSMAKINGPANCAKES!” Just to pop back out.

A mandable to activate cloaking later, he was in the kitchen watching the human pup force down as much food as she could.

How she could chatter so much while so much went down, he would never know. 

When Lilly was dismissed to get her “coat”, he was left alone with the old man. He felt the relief in the air, he couldn’t help but wonder why.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-.-

Click. Click. Click.

Nracha watched as Pappy “pushed” Lilly on the swing. Using gravity to assist in swaying her back and forth. He didn’t understand the point of this game. How would this teach her to survive? Her legs were not long enough to touch the ground, so it wasn’t helping her build stamina for jumping. It didn’t get her high enough to show her the surrounding woods. But Lilly loved whatever it was doing, wanting to go higher and faster, and giggling over the obnoxious click the entire way. The game continued until the communication device in Pappy’s pocket started to ring.

Pappy slowed down the swing a bit before walking into the house to communicate in silence.

“I know you’re their Mr. Crabby!” Lilly yelled. “Can you gimme some pushes while Pappys talkin to Mommy?” 

A quick check to make sure that the door made a sound barrier between him and Pappy. 

“No.” 

“Aww, why not? You’d be a really good pusher! I’ll push you first if you want to swing!”

“Lee-lee, I secret. Pappy no-see.”, Actually. Nracha was more scared of pushing her to hard and flinging her into oblivion. 

“Oh yeah.....” the little girl mused aloud. 

“Don’t worry though Mr. Crabby! I can swing all by myself see! It just takes a while!”, Nracha’s crown raised in suspicion of that statement as the child began to fling herself forwards and back as hard as she could while gripping the ‘swing’, starting the obnoxious clicking all over again.

“Be careful Lilly girl! Don’t go to high by yourself!” Pappy yelled out the window, still holding the communication device to his ear.

Lilly continued her game as the hunter watched, eventually gaining height and speed. 

“See Mr. Crabby! I told you I could do it all by myself!” Lilly praised herself with a grin.

Click. Click. Click. Click

Click. Click. Click. Click.

Click. Click. Click. Snap.

The right support snapped off of its frame while Lilly had been at the peak of her forwards swing. 

Before he realized what he was doing, Nracha’s instinct moved him forward. As far as he knew he was just suddenly holding a white-as-a-sheet Lilly.

Nracha gently set her down before running his hand through her hair and down her back, purring and trying to sooth her shaking.

Lilly seemed to pause a moment before tears welled up in her eyes, and a choked whine rose from her chest, rising in pitch before she began to sob. Latching onto Nracha’s neck. 

Nracha’s Head turned when the breeze shifted, carrying a scent that brought dread.

-.-.-.-..-..—.—.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

He had known the swing set was in need of repair, be it was fine as long as it didn’t go to high, when had Lilly learned to swing on her own? She still couldn’t get up into the seat by herself.

Pappy opened the back door and laid his eyes on his granddaughter just in time to hear a sickening snap.

His Lilly had flown up into the air, before starting to plummet back toward the hard frost bitten ground by earths cruel gravity. He mentally jumped to her but his rickety only bones refused the sharp motion, instead his cursed falls leg locked up and he only stumbled instead of running to save his baby girl. 

But then, Lilly stopped midair. She seemed to float for a second, looking shocked herself, before being lowered to the ground as gently as if he had put her down. 

He was frozen in his spot as she seemed to grab something or someone who wasn’t really there before sobbing. 

A cold wind blew over his head before the uneasy feeling of being watched filled his chest. 

He watched Lilly look up before something seemed to push her to him, he watched his Lilly girl look back one last time with a sniff, before darting to him. 

The old man scooped up the still partially shocked girl before letting a sob of his own out into her hair. Robert had never felt so old or so helpless, but he had never not cared about something so strange happening before. Lilly was safe and that’s all that mattered.

After Lilly’s tears were spent and his shoulder thoroughly soaked. Lilly spoke into his chest.

“I’m sorry baby girl I can’t hear you.” Pappy murmured while running a hand in circles on Lilly’s back.

“My swing broke and Mr. Crabby saved me.” Lilly couldn’t help but start crying again.

“Well, how about we go inside and I make us some hot chocolate, and later on you give a great big thank you to Mr. Crabby for me, alright?”

“Ok Pappy. Can you make an extra one for Mr. Crabby with whipped cream and sprinkles?”

Pappy couldn’t help but smile at that.

“Of course baby girl.”

Robert Had no clue what he saw. Wether it was some kind of guardian angel, some odd ball thing that a scientist would have a crazy explanation for, a little girl who had actually managed to bring a creature to life through her imagination, or some crazy ho-do vo-do which magic, he didn’t give a rats ass. His granddaughter was safe, and whatever or whoever “Mr. Crabby” was could have as much whipped cream and sprinkles as it wanted.


End file.
